TCA Liveblog: Sara Gilbert on “The Talk”

I’m at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles this week for the Television
Critics Association (TCA) summer-fall upfronts and today CBS is hosting
the panels on their new and returning shows. I’ll be updating you on
anything lesbo-related throughout the day so keep checking back!

11:30 a.m. The Talk

A little background: CBS released an official statement about the show last week, giving the bios of all the moms involved: Sara, Julie Chen, Sharon Osbourne, Holly Robinson Peete, Leah Remini and Marissa Jaret Winokur. In each woman’s bio, their partners (read: husbands) were listed,but not Sara’s. Sara’s simply stated she "lived at home with her family." This wouldn’t have been odd if the rest of the women involved hadn’t had their male partner’s name spelled out in the surrounding bios.

For the record, Sara’s partner is Allison Adler.

Considering Sara is not only part of the show, but its creator and executive producer, it’s very strange that this made it out of the press room. She’s an out lesbian who will obviously be coming from that point of view on motherhood on the show, so why would CBS choose to leave it out of the release?

Sara’s response was that it was her decision; she doesn’t like to "discuss her personal life." "But it being a talk show, I obviously will discuss my personal life. I just didn’t want it to be in a press release. I’d rather do it here."

OK a little strange, in my opinion. She seems to almost be shy about publicizing the fact she’s a mom and a lesbian. That or Allison is not interested in being on camera or a huge part of the show.

Julie Chen then said she thinks it’ll be interesting to see viewer responses to Sara being a lesbian.

On if being out is easier as a talk show host vs. an actress:

I don’t ever really think of things as out or in. I am who I am. When topics come up that are appropriate, I’ll talk about them and share when it seems right. … I don’t analyze these things. I’m just living my life. I put my heart and soul into this show.

Sara on The Talk it’ll be different from The View:

It came from an organic place. I was a new mom when I thought of the show. I was feeling overwhelmed — am I giving my baby enough attention? Am I giving my son enough attention? I went to a mom group and thought anpeople need this kind of support. A lightbulb went off: What if it were a show where women sat together and talked about world through that perspective. There are several shows in that format with women sitting at a table.

Sara’s pet peeve about Allison:

Ali is much taller than I am. If we get dressed, clothes always look better on her and that can be kind of annoying.

My early thoughts on The Talk based on the show: Sara is a lesbian. Sara doesn’t necessarily want to talk about being a lesbian or a lesbian mom. Sara is best when just talking about her life and her family. She just so happens to be a lesbian. So will Sara be taking on tons of lesbian topics? Probably not — she’ll just be coming from a lesbian point of view by default.